American people firstThe start of the year is when many companies, organizations, families and people review their plans and their priorities. This process often includes deciding where they should focus their time, energy and effort, and how to judge, at year’s end, whether they have succeeded. Planning is most successful when it is built on the priorities, opportunities and problems that need to be addressed. If the biggest problem one has is health, then health...

The great food stamp bingeSeveral years ago I remember hearing the late Earl Nightingale tell a story about the Punch Island seagulls. It seems a fishing fleet made its center of operations at a small village on the coastline. Each day when the fleet came in with its catch, the fishermen would clean the fish and throw the entrails to the hundreds of seagulls that were waiting for the feast they were sure would come. This went on for weeks, until one day the fleet decid...

For GOP, 2014 a should-win, must-winThe 2014 elections aren’t just a should-win nationally for the Republican Party. They’re almost a must-win. The party, which controls the U.S. House and needs six seats to retake the Senate, has everything moving in its direction this year. The Obamacare rollout has been a mess, so the public will be receptive to the party that preaches less government, even if it often doesn’t practice it. Because this is a nonpresidential election, turnout w...

Liberals, let the states do itIn the beginning, Massachusetts opened the gates to same-sex marriage and universal health coverage. California started to liberalize drug laws by legalizing medical marijuana. The sky didn’t fall on any of these efforts, initially regarded as dangerous social experiments by many conservatives. Now red states such as Kentucky are launching state-run health insurance exchanges. Federal judges in conservative Utah and Oklahoma are calling bans o...

Racing interests slip two throughThe fact that lobbying interests still have a strong influence on legislation passed by the Arkansas General Assembly should surprise no one. In fact, since the enactment of term limits most lobbyists find it even easier to push through legislation that they not only support but have a heavy influence in crafting. One of the powerful lobbying interests in the state represents Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Greyhound Park in West Mem...

Christie, Hillary and ObamaThe first time I saw New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on television, a few years ago, my first reaction was astonishment: “A talking Republican!” It would scarcely have been more astonishing if there had been a talking giraffe. For reasons unknown, most Republican leaders seem to pay very little attention to articulation — certainly as compared to leading Democrats, who seem to pay little attention to anything else. Governor Christie’s nearl...

Term limits don’t stop violations of public trustOne of the things we surely have learned from Arkansas politics of the past year is that term limits for public officials don’t guarantee integrity. One can violate the public trust in a short time. Those who brought term limits to Arkansas in 1992 as part of a national movement argued that limiting the terms of public officials would make them less susceptible to the influence of special interest groups and more likely to live up to our expec...

Darr’s stance invited ouster effortLITTLE ROCK — Mark Darr’s stake in the ground turned out to be the nail in his political coffin. Darr’s decision to step down as lieutenant governor over ethics violations tied to his office and campaign spending came three days after the Republican official vowed he wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t afraid of impeachment threats. Rather than rallying support for him, Darr’s bold stand only seemed to invite an ouster attempt. “Today I put a sta...

Responding to Darr and ShoffnerArkansas has seven constitutional officers: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and land commissioner. In the past year, two of them, first Treasurer Martha Shoffner and then Lt. Gov. Mark Darr, have been forced to resign due to financial improprieties. At some point, Arkansans should ask ourselves, to paraphrase the old breakup excuse, if it’s not just them, but it’s also us. Let’s be clear:...

Another reason to have beer on handAn off-duty Houston firefighter made the best of his resources when trying to put out a truck tire fire: He used beer the rig was hauling. Fire Capt. Craig Moreau and his wife were driving home last Monday night after a trip to Austin when they came upon an 18-wheeler on fire. Moreau and the trucker, whose brake problems started the fire, tried using a small extinguisher. Moreau said he thought the fire was out, but then noticed the blaze had ...

More improvement neededLITTLE ROCK — For years now, our state’s leaders in multiple fields of expertise have called for more Arkansans to earn college degrees. In 2011, I urged our state to meet a tangible goal — to double the number of Arkansans graduating with a four-year degree. We have made progress, but we need to accelerate that progress to ensure more Arkansans can take advantages of opportunities before them. The latest figures show that one in five Arkansan...

License restrictions save teen driversAs parents, is there any moment when we feel quite as vulnerable as when we turn over the keys to a newly licensed teen driver for the first time? I’ve done it twice — with sons who are now in college — and the memories are still fresh in my mind. I know from personal experience that there is no time a driver is as likely to end up in a crash as during those first few months behind the wheel. Driving is a difficult skill to learn and with as m...

Society cannot live beyond its means without consequencesOver the centuries, the world has had various economic systems. One of the earliest was the hunting, fishing and collecting type. This system embodied a relatively low standard of living that had a minimum impact on the environment. This was followed by the dominant economy of pastoralism. In this setting, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep or other animals were the basis for livelihood. Then tilling the soil or agriculture gained the ascenda...

Making an informed choiceI have been covering different psychiatric disorders for a few months and relating the need to seek out mental health professionals. Finding the right fit depends on a number of factors such as age, geographic location, insurance, services available and type and severity of the problem. Age is a big factor due to specialized care related to needs associated with specific age groups. This may be broken down into children’s units up to age 12, a...

MRAP, Maxx, and the militarization of local police forcesWhat a Christmas little Bastrop had! It's still a mystery how Santa Claus got it down the chimney, but Bastrop got a nifty present that most children could only dream about: a big honkin', steel-clad, war toy called MRAP. But Bastrop is not a 6-year-old child, and an MRAP is not a toy. Bastrop is a Texas county of some 75,000 people, and MRAP stands for "Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected." It's a heavily armored military vehicle weighing about 1...

State government’s spare tireThere’s been a lot of talk these past few weeks about whether Arkansas ought to get rid of its current lieutenant governor, and probably not enough talk about getting rid of the office itself. The current lieutenant governor, Mark Darr, on Tuesday announced plans to stay in office despite calls for him to resign. He has agreed to pay an $11,000 fine as a result of violations he committed in the use of campaign and state funds. He says his reco...

The Natural State bowlWith the Arkansas Razorbacks out of the bowl picture again, I’ve turned to the Arkansas State Red Wolves for my home state bowl fix the past two years. They did not disappoint with a thrilling win Sunday night over Ball State in the GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, Ala. As I watched, two things occurred to me: First, the Natural State needs to host a bowl game like the GoDaddy Bowl, and second, the Mike Ross Campaign for governor appears to be in troub...

Exposing wickedness truly AmericanIt’s the revolt of the geeks. Edward Snowden is John Peter Zenger digitized, a post-Internet free-press hero soaring above the security obsessions of the past decade to assert the inalienable requirements of individual sovereignty in a wired world. It was Zenger whose journalistic efforts to expose the wrongdoing of a colonial governor appointed by the crown landed him in jail facing the charge of “seditious libel,” quite similar to that broug...

Private option debate dominates Senate District 21 campaignWhile the special election for the District 21 state Senate seat came about because of a lapse in ethics, that seems to be a non-issue in the campaign, which will wrap up next Tuesday. The district covers the western half of Craighead County, including Jonesboro. The last-standing candidates from a vigorous primary are Republican John Cooper of Bono and Democrat Steve Rockwell of Jonesboro. Rockwell, making his first run at public office, emer...

Darr’s ethics woes show office’s flawsLITTLE ROCK — There’s a simple truth about the lieutenant governor’s office that helped get Mark Darr elected to the position more than three years ago. It’s the same truth that could spell the Republican’s doom as he grapples with a growing call to resign over his ethics woes. Without any real power attached to it, the Arkansas lieutenant governor’s influence depends more on personality than policy. It’s an office where symbolism trumps subst...